Pbix file version change from 1.12 to 1.15

We have a custom .pbix publishing process which apparently has a dependency on the version of PBI Desktop. It recently broke when an existing report was modified and the version changed from 1.12 to 1.15. I don't seem to be able to find any information about what exactly this version relates to or what changes its value.

I've created a new .pbix with he August 2018 version of PBI Desktop and the version is 1.12 and with he September 2018 version of PBI Desktop and the version is still 1.12. What changed my version to 1.15?

I'd like to manage and/or avoid this dependency, any insights are much appreciated!

Steps to identify version:

Take a .pbix file and rename the extenstion from .pbix to .zip.

E.g. Test.pbix -> Test.zip

Double-click Test.zip to open the compressed file folder

Within the folder there is a Version file:

Open the Version file with Notepad:

The value in my report used to be 1.12, now it is 1.15. Why? What changed it?

Re: Pbix file version change from 1.12 to 1.15

I opened a support ticket to see if I could get some understanding surrounding the pbix file versioning. Support provided a good response on the concepts going on here. It does raise additional questions, but for this topic, it is sufficient.

Response from Sypport:

The versioning logic in Power BI Desktop is fairly complex because it involves interactions between many features and many parts of the product / file format. Additionally, various parts of the file format have variations in how they handle versioning. So, I won’t try to explain all the details here. I will try to provide some general information about how we approach PBIX versioning, and I will give some details about the versions you mentioned below.

In general, Power BI Desktop knows which features have been used in a particular file, and it knows which product/file versions are required for those features. When creating a new file, a version of Power BI Desktop will start with a particular PBIX file format version. As features are used, Power BI Desktop keeps track of which PBIX file format version is required to correctly store / interpret those features. In order to maximize compatibility, Power BI Desktop tries to save PBIX files so they have the lowest version number required for all features used in that file. However, that is only a general rule.

While we work hard to let newer Power BI Desktop releases write files that will work with older Power BI Desktop releases, we still consider it “best effort” rather than a strong guarantee. Sometimes, using a feature alters an internal file structure in a way that we cannot downgrade the structure even if the feature is removed from the document. For example, one part of the PBIX file format is the data model. Once we upgrade the data model to a later version, which is required for some features, we cannot downgrade the data model. Therefore, we’ll always save such a PBIX with a higher file format.

Finally, sometimes particular features require that specific preview features be enabled in the Power BI Desktop Options dialog. These preview features can trigger writing newer versions of the PBIX file format, and opening files containing preview features may require that those features be enabled in the Options dialog.

Regarding the specific versions mentioned by the you: PBIX file version 1.15 guards several features including Composite Models, many-to-many relationships, and setting a data category on a measure. If you have used any of those features in the PBIX file, at any point in time, it would have been upgraded to 1.15. When you creates a new, blank report, it starts out with version 1.12. If they had used additional features in that file, they would have seen the version number increase.

In general, I’d suggest you to upgrade to the latest version when you see these kinds of versioning related messages. If you need files to remain compatible with a specific release of Power BI Desktop, I recommend that you use that release when editing the file.

Re: Pbix file version change from 1.12 to 1.15

Thanks for having a look. So far it's only occured with one report using the latest September verion of Desktop. I've reverted to an older report, and, with the August version of Desktop, reapplied my updates. This file stays at 1.12.

I've also taken a copy of the report, opened it in September, saved it, and it also says it's 1.12. However this copy, when I deploy it, fails with the 1.1.5 error. I am suspecting the September version does increment the version somehow, but fails to update the Version doc in the structure all the time.

At this point I'm staying with August Desktop until we resolve the downstream dependency.

Re: Pbix file version change from 1.12 to 1.15

I opened a support ticket to see if I could get some understanding surrounding the pbix file versioning. Support provided a good response on the concepts going on here. It does raise additional questions, but for this topic, it is sufficient.

Response from Sypport:

The versioning logic in Power BI Desktop is fairly complex because it involves interactions between many features and many parts of the product / file format. Additionally, various parts of the file format have variations in how they handle versioning. So, I won’t try to explain all the details here. I will try to provide some general information about how we approach PBIX versioning, and I will give some details about the versions you mentioned below.

In general, Power BI Desktop knows which features have been used in a particular file, and it knows which product/file versions are required for those features. When creating a new file, a version of Power BI Desktop will start with a particular PBIX file format version. As features are used, Power BI Desktop keeps track of which PBIX file format version is required to correctly store / interpret those features. In order to maximize compatibility, Power BI Desktop tries to save PBIX files so they have the lowest version number required for all features used in that file. However, that is only a general rule.

While we work hard to let newer Power BI Desktop releases write files that will work with older Power BI Desktop releases, we still consider it “best effort” rather than a strong guarantee. Sometimes, using a feature alters an internal file structure in a way that we cannot downgrade the structure even if the feature is removed from the document. For example, one part of the PBIX file format is the data model. Once we upgrade the data model to a later version, which is required for some features, we cannot downgrade the data model. Therefore, we’ll always save such a PBIX with a higher file format.

Finally, sometimes particular features require that specific preview features be enabled in the Power BI Desktop Options dialog. These preview features can trigger writing newer versions of the PBIX file format, and opening files containing preview features may require that those features be enabled in the Options dialog.

Regarding the specific versions mentioned by the you: PBIX file version 1.15 guards several features including Composite Models, many-to-many relationships, and setting a data category on a measure. If you have used any of those features in the PBIX file, at any point in time, it would have been upgraded to 1.15. When you creates a new, blank report, it starts out with version 1.12. If they had used additional features in that file, they would have seen the version number increase.

In general, I’d suggest you to upgrade to the latest version when you see these kinds of versioning related messages. If you need files to remain compatible with a specific release of Power BI Desktop, I recommend that you use that release when editing the file.